Typical Professional Music Career Bio?

This is the official authorized Terry Kelly music career bio. For the unofficial, unauthorized, and unknowingly more indepth autobiography, check out his infinitely interesting and sometimes entertaining life story entitled, Acoustic Guitars and Broken Hearts.

Terry Kelly grew up in Champaign, Illinois and on a road called Route 66, during the 1960s and was influenced at a very young age by the Beatles and Bob Dylan. He got his first guitar and started writing songs while a student at Valdosta State College (now University) in Valdosta, Georgia, where he earned a Fine Arts Degree in Radio/Television Journalism.

Fellow soccer player and singer-songwriter Tom Bosse and Kelly formed an acoustic/folk-rock duo at Valdosta State and became popular performers around campus, mostly at the girl's dorms. Bosse and Kelly had a local hit song, which they wrote, called "Carolina Dreams" (AKA: Carolina Blue). They covered the music of the Eagles, Poco, America, Jackson Browne, Dan Fogelberg, Neil Young and James Taylor, before parting ways in 1980.

After graduation, Terry worked as a sports writer and attempted to "make it" as a professional soccer player. Three years later, he began a long journey as a solo-acoustic/folk, contemporary singer-songwriter with a mix of Beatle's and Bob Dylan personality. But, it was Nanci Griffith and Bruce Springsteen's music that would influence his performing and songwriting most of all.

His journey would take him to Greenwich Village and the metro New York area in the fall of 1985 as he followed the footsteps of Dylan, Springsteen, Simon and Garfunkel, and his biggest influences . . the Smothers Brothers, Bill Cosby, and Woody Allen? Influences which are very evident in his more humorous and popular songs: "Mother Nature can be a Bitch," "Orlando Town," "Meg Ryan," and "When I was a Dog."

After playing week nights around the Village he became a regular weekend performer at New Jersey venues, from the Deck House in Asbury Park to Tierney's in Montclair.
He was often the opening act for Billy Hector and the Fairlanes, Big Danny and the Boppers, Barbecue Bob and the Spareribs, and all the Jersey blues players who were made up of former Springsteen and Southside Johnny band members.

His best guitar and winter coat were stolen in the city during the winter of '88 and then a shot at a Columbia Records (long-shot) recording deal fizzled. John Hammond's secretary suggested that he move to Nashville?

Soon the New York area's snow and freezing rain sent him and his musical journey back to the sunny South and his current home in (Brevard County) Central and Eastern Florida, where he now writes and performs more than ever and has recorded three self-released albums and been featured on two "various artists" CDs of original folk music.

His "Across America" album (2001), has been featured on Folk/Americana and Roots programs in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, South Africa, and in America on College and Public Radio.

His music has found a regular spot alongside Ralph McTell, Maddy Prior, Kate Rusby, and Ian Anderson on Genevieve Tudor's "Sunday Folk" program on the BBC, Radio 2 Network in the U.K.

Terry Kelly has come a long way from his early days listening to the first Beatle albums back in Champaign, Illinois. In many respects he's just getting started. Didn't the Beatles get started with airplay on BBC Radio?

"I could be smarter than Einstein . . I've got a lot of theories about my relatives!" -lyrics from "Romeo and Juliet" © 1999, Terry Kelly.

-Peace-

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